BACK ON THE HORSE
Fri, 2016-09-30 05:00
News Staff
Lady Dawgs respond from Friday’s loss to Midway with sweep of Harker Heights
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs volleyball took a big blow to their confidence during Friday’s lopsided loss to Midway, ranked no. 1 in Texas, but they put it behind them in Saturday’s practice and wiped that from their memories with Tuesday’s sweep of the Harker Heights Lady Knights (25-16, 25-19, 25-13).
“We needed a little retribution coming off of Friday’s non-performance,” said Copperas Cove head volleyball coach Cari Lowery. “It’s always going to be a little bumpy when you’re come back off something like that.
“We didn’t even play at Midway. We don’t even know what Midway could do because they didn’t have to do anything to us. We did it to ourselves. We started off passing well then we had swings to the wall. We couldn’t do anything and we got all in our heads and that’s what inexperience and youth does. We had a practice Saturday morning and I think they’re going to be fine. I think we can give them a better game next time for sure.”
Lowery knows her team just needs to stay focused, keep learning and keep their foot firmly on the gas pedal with a varied district slate upcoming and she feels they responded well against the Lady Knights on Tuesday.
“The wide variety of playing styles in this district is very hard for young kids to regroup from,” said Lowery. “When you go play a team that hits it straight down on a 10-foot line from everywhere, then you come in here and it’s a completely different style of volleyball. That’s just part of that learning curve and I thought they handled it tonight.”
Senior Brianna Acker knows it’s her job as a leader to calm down the three sophomores and inexperienced upperclassmen on the roster after a loss like that.
“We (as seniors) just sit down and talk to them and tell them how good they are,” she said. “As sophomores coming in, I think they’re automatically nervous because they see us as the varsity girls and think, ‘we want to be them,’ but I think our sophomores are pretty good. They are a big piece to our puzzle.”
She also knows they win as a team and lose as a team.
“We just had a hiccup,” she said. “It wasn’t individual. It was as a whole team and we all had to come together and realize how to play as a team and how to pick each other up because the game doesn’t always go right. When it’s not, you have to learn how to play as a team and put that puzzle together.”
She feels they did just that in Tuesday’s win over Harker Heights.
“(We improved) our communication definitely,” she said. “When we got in that hole we were able to bring it back together and do what we know how to do.”
The Lady Dawgs showed some mental toughness in set two against Heights. After jumping out to an early 7-0 lead, the Lady Knights then went on a 19-12 run to knot the game at 19 before Cove closed the game on a 6-0 run. Cove then dominated the final set for the sweep.
“In game two we could have given it up but we didn’t,” said Lowery. “We fought back and scored the last six points of the game. We started off great guns and (Kiarrah Carlisle) served like seven points and I think we kind of exhaled, like ‘we got this.’ That’s what young teams do, even when they’ve played 35 games. We played a little scattered in game two but I thought game three was ours. We controlled the whole game.”
Cove jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first game behind aces by seniors Madison Wasiak and Aneissa Vega before a kill by Heights senior Valicity Saunders briefly halted the Lady Dawgs’ run. Three kills by Acker and a block each from seniors Chyanne Chapman and Dazsa Braddock and another from sophomore Aidan Chace helped Cove regain control and build a 12-point lead. A 6-2 run by the Lady Knights closed the gap briefly before a Heights hitting error closed the set.
The seven points off the Carlisle serve began with an ace to start the second set. Kills by sophomore Jada Close, Chace, Chapman and Acker helped Cove build a 12-5 lead. Kills by Acker and junior Talia Kinslow paired with a block by Acker and an ace by Chapman helped Cove hold off a surging Lady Knights’ squad.
The Lady Knights were able to keep the set close in the third, trailing 10-6, before the Lady Dawgs finished the match on 19-7 run. The Lady Dawgs’ run began with a kill by Braddock, three by Close and a block by Kinslow for five-consecutive points.
Chace, Acker and Close led the offensive attack with nine, eight and seven kills, respectively.
The senior Carlisle led the offense with 24 assists with Chace adding 10.
Leading the Cove defense at the net were Chapman, Braddock and Kinslow with three blocks each. Wasiak led the back row defense with 27 digs followed by Vega’s 13. Vega led the team in aces with three.
Acker knows her team must be prepared for the next challenge tonight at home against Shoemaker as anything can happen in the chaotic District 8-6A.
“You never really know what to expect,” she said. “You go from playing somebody like Midway where you always know a ball is coming back. When you play different teams with different offenses, you never know if there is going to be a short ball or a deep ball, you just have to be on your toes from the beginning.”
Part of the learning curve for Lowery is having her kids adjust to those varied styles.
It’s all a learning curve with the sophomores and, (about half of) my seniors, this being their first experience at this level too. You can play a JV game in this same gym against those same kids that are on that team over here when they are on JV and it’s still not the same.
She also knows with three sophomores in the starting lineup, it’s not always about the right now, but building for the future. Even if that future is right now.
“It’s not always about winning district,” she said. “It’s about what you can to do as you continue to get better. Nobody thought we could beat (Midway) last year either, but that team kept getting better and this team will keep getting better.”